Relationships Among Dietary Life Style, Inner Strength, and Mental Health in Japanese College Students

Abstract

Several studies showed that the attitudes of deprecating dietary moods in dairy life were associated with mental health among college students in Japan. Additionally, inner strength has been paid attention as a personal resource that promotes mental health. However, the relationships among these factors have not been studied. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships among dietary moods, inner strength, and mental health in Japanese college students. Subjects were 187 college students (112 males, 75 females, mean age: 19.2±1.3 years). Dietary Life Style Scale for Japanese College Students (Takano et al., 2009), Japanese versions of Inner Strength Scale (ISS-J; Endo et al., 2013) and General Health Questionnaire (GHQ28 Nakagawa & Daibo, 1985) were measured by questionnaire method. Covariance structure analysis showed that the deprecating dietary moods scores were positively related to the ISS-J scores directly, and negatively related to the scores of GHQ28 via the ISS-J scores (?2(1)=1.74 (p=.19), GFI=.994, AGFI=.963, RMSEA=.063). These results suggested that dietary moods were important factor to improve inner strength and mental health in college students.